It comes in the form of a documentary film titled, "FrackNation," whose co-directors' funding in the past came from Donors Capital and Donors Trust, referred to by Mothers Jones' Andy Kroll as "" and a major source of funding for climate change denial.

Both "Gasland 2" and "FrackNation" cover hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the toxic horizontal drilling process via which unconventional oil and gas is obtained from shale rock basins around the country and world. Co-produced and co-directed by Irish couple Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, "FrackNation" purports to be "funded by the 99 percent to combat the misrepresentations by the 1 percent of urban elites who want to tell rural Americans how to work and live."

"FrackNation is an independent film and we want to remain independent of the Gas industry and be funded by ordinary people," it says on its KickStarter page that it used to raise $212,265 from 3,305 backers of the film between February-April 2012.

This isn't the first dip in the "doubt is our product" pond for McAleer and McElhinney. In the past, they co-directed and co-produced a pro-mining documentary titled "Mine Your Own Business" and a climate change denial documentary titled, "Not Evil, Just Wrong."

Filmmaker's History of Tobacco Playbook Deployment

"FrackNation" made its public debut in Jan. 2013, coinciding with the release of "Promised Land," a Hollywood drama starring Matt Damon.

"It's time Hollywood celebrities and environmentalists were asked some difficult questions about their anti-fracking activities and ideologies. And that's what FrackNation does," McAleer said in a press release announcing the world premiere.

Countering popular environmental struggles and luminaries is the modus operandi for McAleer and McElhinney, with a track record of doing so dating back to the mid-2000's. Their first public foray into the world of "marketing doubt" came with the release of their "Mine Your Own Business: The Dark Side of Environmentalism."

One key funder: Gabriel Resources. This moved local Romanian citizen Eugen David to write that the film was pure propaganda.

"Because the gold lies squarely under and around the village of Rosia Montana, Gabriel needs to move out the local population -- roughly 2000 people all in all. But it's not only the people that will need to go," David wrote in Jan. 2007. "Gone also would be our mountains, pastures, rivers and our churches, cemeteries and school – our community with its social fabric and traditions."

The purpose of the film was obvious: complicate the narrative on the proposed mine through ad hominem attacks on environmentalists, rather than addressing environmental issues associated with the mine itself. David and fellow citizens living in the proposed mining area didn't buy the bluff.

"After a first unannounced test screening in Bucharest, Gabriel Resources had to stop the film after 15 minutes because people were so revolted by what they saw," he further explained.

"Mine Your Own Business," however, did have a loyal fan base: the right-wing echo chamber.

In response to the proposed 2009 federal climate legislation and in the run-up to the 2009 Copenhagen United Nations international climate summit, McAleer and McElhinney released the film, "Not Evil, Just Wrong." Akin to "FrackNation" with "Gasland 2" director Josh Fox, the film spends much time attacking former Vice President Al Gore in ad hominem fashion, with the film serving as a response Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

"It has no commercial distributor, but instead debuted on an October 18 webcast heavily promoted by social conservative organizations like Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, as well as local Tea Party groups," a Mother Jones article explained.

Paralleling "Mine Your Own Business," the film was met with great fanfare within the right-wing echo chamber despite lack of commercial distribution.

"They’ve held pre-screenings for bloggers and brought the film to every major conservative conference of 2009, including the Values Voter Summit and Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit," one news media report explained. "At the Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC], McAleer and McElhinney spoke right before Rush Limbaugh."

Halvorssen also runs the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), which has taken $764,950 from Donors Trust and Donors Capital since 2005, according to a recent investigative story by Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal also explains MPI took more than $300,000 from Donors between 2005 and 2011.

"Global warming alarmists want Americans to believe that humans are killing the planet," BEE's former website explained in promoting the film. "But Not Evil Just Wrong, a documentary by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, proves that the real threats to America (and the rest of the world) are the flawed science and sky-is-falling rhetoric of Al Gore and his allies in environmental extremism."

"Not Evil, Just Wrong" shared the same PR firm with BEE, Go Ahead PR, a sure sign that the film's release and the campaign were part of a coordinated campaign.

And though McAleer and McElhinney say "FrackNation" was bankrolled via a grassroots KickStarter fundraising drive, a deeper dig into its books - as will be seen in part two of this investigation - calls that all into question.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

It comes in the form of a documentary film titled, "FrackNation," whose co-directors' funding in the past came from Donors Capital and Donors Trust, referred to by Mothers Jones' Andy Kroll as "" and a major source of funding for climate change denial.

Both "Gasland 2" and "FrackNation" cover hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the toxic horizontal drilling process via which unconventional oil and gas is obtained from shale rock basins around the country and world. Co-produced and co-directed by Irish couple Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, "FrackNation" purports to be "funded by the 99 percent to combat the misrepresentations by the 1 percent of urban elites who want to tell rural Americans how to work and live."

"FrackNation is an independent film and we want to remain independent of the Gas industry and be funded by ordinary people," it says on its KickStarter page that it used to raise $212,265 from 3,305 backers of the film between February-April 2012.

This isn't the first dip in the "doubt is our product" pond for McAleer and McElhinney. In the past, they co-directed and co-produced a pro-mining documentary titled "Mine Your Own Business" and a climate change denial documentary titled, "Not Evil, Just Wrong."

Filmmaker's History of Tobacco Playbook Deployment

"FrackNation" made its public debut in Jan. 2013, coinciding with the release of "Promised Land," a Hollywood drama starring Matt Damon.

"It's time Hollywood celebrities and environmentalists were asked some difficult questions about their anti-fracking activities and ideologies. And that's what FrackNation does," McAleer said in a press release announcing the world premiere.

Countering popular environmental struggles and luminaries is the modus operandi for McAleer and McElhinney, with a track record of doing so dating back to the mid-2000's. Their first public foray into the world of "marketing doubt" came with the release of their "Mine Your Own Business: The Dark Side of Environmentalism."

One key funder: Gabriel Resources. This moved local Romanian citizen Eugen David to write that the film was pure propaganda.

"Because the gold lies squarely under and around the village of Rosia Montana, Gabriel needs to move out the local population -- roughly 2000 people all in all. But it's not only the people that will need to go," David wrote in Jan. 2007. "Gone also would be our mountains, pastures, rivers and our churches, cemeteries and school – our community with its social fabric and traditions."

The purpose of the film was obvious: complicate the narrative on the proposed mine through ad hominem attacks on environmentalists, rather than addressing environmental issues associated with the mine itself. David and fellow citizens living in the proposed mining area didn't buy the bluff.

"After a first unannounced test screening in Bucharest, Gabriel Resources had to stop the film after 15 minutes because people were so revolted by what they saw," he further explained.

"Mine Your Own Business," however, did have a loyal fan base: the right-wing echo chamber.

In response to the proposed 2009 federal climate legislation and in the run-up to the 2009 Copenhagen United Nations international climate summit, McAleer and McElhinney released the film, "Not Evil, Just Wrong." Akin to "FrackNation" with "Gasland 2" director Josh Fox, the film spends much time attacking former Vice President Al Gore in ad hominem fashion, with the film serving as a response Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

"It has no commercial distributor, but instead debuted on an October 18 webcast heavily promoted by social conservative organizations like Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, as well as local Tea Party groups," a Mother Jones article explained.

Paralleling "Mine Your Own Business," the film was met with great fanfare within the right-wing echo chamber despite lack of commercial distribution.

"They’ve held pre-screenings for bloggers and brought the film to every major conservative conference of 2009, including the Values Voter Summit and Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit," one news media report explained. "At the Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC], McAleer and McElhinney spoke right before Rush Limbaugh."

Halvorssen also runs the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), which has taken $764,950 from Donors Trust and Donors Capital since 2005, according to a recent investigative story by Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal also explains MPI took more than $300,000 from Donors between 2005 and 2011.

"Global warming alarmists want Americans to believe that humans are killing the planet," BEE's former website explained in promoting the film. "But Not Evil Just Wrong, a documentary by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, proves that the real threats to America (and the rest of the world) are the flawed science and sky-is-falling rhetoric of Al Gore and his allies in environmental extremism."

"Not Evil, Just Wrong" shared the same PR firm with BEE, Go Ahead PR, a sure sign that the film's release and the campaign were part of a coordinated campaign.

And though McAleer and McElhinney say "FrackNation" was bankrolled via a grassroots KickStarter fundraising drive, a deeper dig into its books - as will be seen in part two of this investigation - calls that all into question.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.